vocal harmony

robinsel · Post by **robinsel** » Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:50 am

I hope someone can help me out there !! I do a lot of backing vocals in a band, whilst playing my keyboard - often split sounds, so I can have the vocal harmonies on chord recognition either right or left hand. However, I have noticed that when I sing into the mic, the harmonies "waver" and can sometimes sound really out of tune. Embarassing ! I am using all the factory settings, i.e adaptive etc, but there is often delay on the harmonies when I play the chord and then this awful voice wavering - sometimes down half a note ! . I should point out that I can sing in tune !!! Pitch correction is on - in fact, everything that should help perfect harmonies is on !!! what am I doing wrong ?

DonM · Post by **DonM** » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:00 pm

I would suggest trying it with pitch correction OFF. I've had no problem with this as long as the mic is not picking up sound from the speakers.

Reuben · Post by **Reuben** » Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:55 pm

I find Chord Scan mode for the Source, works best for me. Also sometimes I get better results when trying different presets (say 3rds & 5ths rather than say 2 Up). I'd also be inclined to leave pitch correction turned off as it only applies to the lead voice (harmonies will always be pitch correct).

Dikikeys · Post by **Dikikeys** » Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:06 am

I'd troubleshoot it at home while you aren't on stage, first...

Once you get it acceptable at home, then try it with the band. If you THEN get unintended results that you didn't at home, the culprit may be 'bleed' into your vocal mike from other players. You might have to have a dedicated headset mike really close to your mouth to minimize bleed, for instance, or a mike with a much tighter pickup pattern...

If home sounds OK but stage is off, if the board can do it, try recording JUST your mike channel, and play back later to listen to what EXACTLY the harmony section is hearing in the first place. You might be surprised at how much other junk it is picking up!

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Wed Jun 18, 2014 1:47 am

It just may be in the voice itself. It's just the nature of the musculature of the throat - part of 'character' of the individual voice.

Some years ago a vocal coach mentioned to me about 'vocal folds'. She explained that these are part of the structure of the larynx and, from time to time in all singers, indeed all voices, small fluctuations occur in muscle movement, quite involuntarily. Now, 99.9% of the time these minor warbles go unnoticed, but for whatever reason, harmonisers tend to show up these 'imperfections' to a greater degree. So the problem may be a combination of several things.

One step could be in finding which notes in your voice are prone to produce these unwanted sounds and trying a harmony line that doesn't involve those notes. Of course, that can be a no-no in songs with well recognised harmony lines.

Ideally, through consistent and diligent work, the throat muscles can be trained to act in a certain way, and this may be the best way to combat the problem. Unfortunately, after having sung with our own bad habits 'training' our voices over many years, reversing the process and doing it properly is a task of huge proportions and few are inclined to take it on.

Not being a vocal teacher or having a medical degree, that's about the extent of my knowledge on the subject. Perhaps someone with further knowledge can chime in on this.